Hate my kitchen floor tiles- low budget options please

[Duckling771]

Hi

I've got horrible orange floor tiles in the kitchen. The thought of having to rip the kitchen out and remove the tiles fills me which dread and would be expensive
The surface of the tile isn't flat it's slightly wavery textured if that makes sense
I wouldn't want to lay anything on top that would cause a massive height difference between rooms
What would people recommend
A rug won't cover it, slightly awkward shape room
Painting I imagine would potentially look a bit rough if you get it on the dark grout and would probably chip and reveal the ugly orange underneath
Vinyl/laminate im unsure if the bumpy texture/grout lines would cause an issue and potentially add quite a bit of height to the floor

So I guess I'm asking what's the least worst option to cover up these ugly tiles without ripping the kitchen out and digging up the existing floors and doesn't cost a small fortune

Ideas welcome 😁

Fairly similar to the tiles in the image below for reference (Google images)

I’m not sure there is one?

In rooms like kitchens it seems you can’t do one small thing without having to replace / change everything.

Dont paint them, that won’t end well. I suppose you could have levelling concrete poured all over them and then a thin Luxury vinyl tile or Marmoleum or vinyl / Lino / tiles on top. But it will be higher than the floor is now.

I didn't know if I could get away with some vinyl floor tiles or something without having to use self leveller stuff first, I could accept the floors being a few mm out but I wouldn't want to create a huge difference in floor levels between rooms

We had similar in our kitchen. Considered painting, laying on top etc Ended up removing and replacing the floor with woody laminate after a self levelling layer was poured. We did not have new units though. The installer worked around the fitted kitchen.

@Callingallbutterflies can I be cheeky and ask how much it cost roughly

You could screed them and then add flooring like karndean. The flooring is only 2mm thick so it could be as low as an additional 5mm if you are sticking down with the screed.
You could also use vinyl or laminate planks with underlay but it will be thicker.

It's that or a large area rug really, also karndean is not exactly a low cost option (but cheaper than pulling the tiles up). Dunelm do some great rugs quite low cost.

It was part of a larger refurb but with materials and labour the floor part was about 5k or so. It took 4 days to get the old tiles up and the screed down. It is very large area too...75 sqm. If you took up the tiles yourself, that would save a lot. We just didn't have time or inclination for that job. The flooring is Pergo so could do with a cheaper brand I suppose.

How long ago was this roughly if you don't mind me asking?

October last year. North east of Scotland.

If you want a cheap solution I'd look at levelling compound and lino...

The cheapest best option is levelling compound and Lino. If you don’t do the levelling compound you will see the imprint of the old tiles on the Lino.

i had similar tiles in my bathroom and hall. I used vinyl tiles on them without the levelling compound. I had to lay them so the edges didn’t come near the grout lines. Even then I had to use extra glue to keep them down as the floor is so uneven. However I did these in small spaces where imperfections are easily covered. I wouldn’t do the tiles in my kitchen as it’s big and less forgiving of mistakes/imperfections which you will get with vinyl tiles.

i picked vinyl tiles for ease of laying myself but the lino would have been better as I don’t think in the small spaces that the imprint from the old tiles would be too obvious. Obviously larger spaces are less forgiving

I actually rather like those tiles. Assuming they are stone they'd be incredibly hard wearing. I'd like them as a kitchen floor.

If you want to tone them down a bit or change the look have you considered stencilling? A repeat pattern can look very impressive and completely change the overall look of the floor without having to replace what's there.